Significance of using electromagnetic (EM) method for groundwater investigation in Sedimentary and Basement terrains: a review

Abstract

This review article briefly explores the significance of electromagnetic method among other methods used in groundwater investigation. Groundwater investigation can be carried out using various methods such as seismic, magnetic, electromagnetic (EM), electrical resistivity, gravity, remote sensing. Each with its peculiar implication. This paper discusses the effectiveness of EM in detail subsurface investigation for groundwater exploration through an extensive review of the literature. Relevant literatures within the last three years were considered to understand the groundwater features using the EM method over other techniques. Studies using other methods were also examined to compare their reliability in groundwater studies to EM method. This study discovered that the EM method is cheaper, faster and of higher precision in identifying groundwater bearing formation and possible structural control of which the rest technique do not posess such attribute. On this note, there should be a growing interest in the use of EM techniques for groundwater mapping, which gives credible and classification of structural features of both basement and sedimentary terrain groundwater characteristics.